On the move and working alone: a study of Newfoundland and Labrador home care workers

Fitzpatrick, Kathleen (2023) On the move and working alone: a study of Newfoundland and Labrador home care workers. Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Home care workers provide paraprofessional services to adults who require additional support to live within their homes. This manuscript dissertation examines Newfoundland and Labrador home care workers' employment-related geographical mobility (mobility to, from, and as part of work) and its consequences for these workers. Guided by insights from feminist political economy, it uses a mixed-methods approach comprising semi-structured interviews, a review of government policies, online collective agreements, census data, and an internet search for the term 'Newfoundland Ladies.' Chapter Two (manuscript #1) documents the dominant patterns of work-related mobility of two groups of home care workers, unionized workers in St. John's, Newfoundland who engage in daily local commutes (to one or more clients daily) and Southwest Newfoundland workers who commute up to thirteen hours for extended periods to work in Nova Scotia to provide live-in care. It examines the drivers and the multiscalar everyday rhythms of these two groups of home care workers and documents ways these mobilities influence the working conditions, the occupational health and safety risks, and the types of precarity associated with each. Chapter Three (manuscript #2) examines how the rhythms of place influence and are influenced by Southwest Newfoundland interprovincial E-RGM rhythms, examines the power relations found in these workers' everyday lives, and highlights mobile place-making. Chapter Four (manuscript #3) explores the complex commuting patterns of unionized home care workers and the corresponding work-related health and safety risks and reviews if the government and home care agency policies and collective agreements mitigate or exacerbate these risks. The dissertation contributes to the home care work and mobility literatures in three ways. First, it brings to the home care literature a mobility lens and offers recommendations to reduce related occupational health and safety risks. Second, it adds to the intersectional rhythmanalysis literature by comparing the rhythms of two forms of employment-related geographical mobility, argues that the rhythms of place are critical in understanding related rhythms, and combines elements of place ballet with intersectional rhythmanalysis to reveal mobile place-making processes. Third, it adds to the mobility literature by comparing interprovincial home care workers to workers engaged in daily local commutes and the accompanying rhythms, working conditions, and health and safety risks.

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